Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

In my last post, I wrote about being swaddled.  I mentioned both a baby (Jesus) being swaddled by cloth and us being swaddled in God’s love. Relatedly, I ran across the word “wraparound”.  To wraparound is to encircle or to curve and lap over another.  The “wraparound” that drew my attention is from the realm of higher education.  From one particular email I received, colleges are being encouraged to consider how to provide “wraparound support” for students.  That support includes, among other things, helping to meet the basic needs of students such as food, shelter and transportation.  It also includes helping them obtain access to resources for those who might struggle with mental health issues. A word similar to “wraparound” is “surround”.  It means to enclose on all sides, to extend around the margin or edge of. The “surround” that drew my attention is from the realm of a heavenly Father who loves us.  Here’s what it looks like: You are...

Swaddle:  wrap (someone, especially a baby) in garments or cloth in a way that usually surrounds or envelops or encloses on all sides. Shortly after our granddaughter was born, her mom (our daughter) had her sleep in a swaddling blanket.   It’s an ancient practice that has found favor again.   Today, the research shows that a swaddling blanket wrapped snuggly around the baby's body can resemble the womb and help soothe the newborn baby and promote sleep.   After a while, our daughter started having our granddaughter sleep in a swaddling sack.   While not as restrictive as a swaddling blanket, a swaddling sack still loosely surrounds the baby’s body to help prevent the startle reflex that can wake up a baby during sleep. Just on the outside chance that you need a reminder of the most notable swaddling of all time, here it is: And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddl...

I’m dating myself here… I used to order from catalogs, the paper ones that came in the mail.   The catalogs had camping gear, clothes, gifts, you name it.   You found the item or items you wanted, wrote the item number(s) on an order form, put the order form in the envelope, wrote out and enclosed a check, put a stamp on the envelope and mailed it to the catalog company. Once the company received it and processed your check, they boxed up the item(s) and shipped it to you from a distribution center (sometimes called a processing center or mailing facility or packaging facility). Then came Amazon… No more paper catalogs.  No more paper order forms.  You don’t mail a check in an envelope.  Instead you have on line shopping carts and charge cards on file and stored address information. Not only all that, but distribution centers (or processing centers, mailing facilities and packaging facilities) seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur.  Now Amazon u...

If there was ever a meeting of the greatest importance, this was it.  If there was ever a place to meet that was absolutely crucial to the meeting, this was it.   If there were ever introductions that could make or break the meeting, this was it. The meeting was initiated by God:  And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.  (Ex 19:10-11) The place of the meeting had some defined boundaries:  And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.  (Ex 19:12) When the meeting was about to take place, Moses gathered the people to go to meet their God:  Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took thei...